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Divali jolt for tenants
Chandigarh, November 9 The Bench comprising the Chief Justice, Mr Justice B.K. Roy, and Mr Justice Surya Kant, in its 80-page judgement, held that the notification was not violative of Articles 14, 19 and 21 of the Constitution. The CTA had challenged the legality of the notification, which exempted buildings fetching a rent of more than Rs 1,500 per month from the operation of the Punjab Urban Rent Restriction Act, 1949, as applicable to Chandigarh. On February 5, 2004, the Bench allowed the application of the Property Owner's Welfare Association (POWA) for impleading them as a party to the case. Later, the UT Administration was granted two months' time to reconsider the matter. The time was later extended as the Administration cited the Model Code of Conduct on account of Parliamentary Elections 2004 for its inability to reconsider the matter. Two months' time was again granted. The court was informed that the Administration had decided not to withdraw or amend the impugned order. During the hearing, the counsel for the petitioners argued that the UT Administrator, who is the Executive, had totally misused the power conferred by the Central Government. He argued that the Executive couldn't be permitted to issue any notification under any Act by which the Preamble of the legislation is violated. His arguments were rebutted by counsels for the Administration. However, not finding any merit in the contentions of the CTA, the Bench dismissed the petition. Meanwhile, Advocate Vikas Jain, counsel for CTA, told The Tribune that they would file a special leave petition in the Supreme Court against the High Court judgement. Meanwhile, the President of the Chandigarh Tenants Association, Mr Arvind Jain, termed the judgements of the Punjab and Haryana High Court as unfortunate for traders. An emergency meeting of the association has been called at Metro Hotel in Sector 35 at 3 p.m tomorrow to discuss the matter and plan further course of action including filing an application in the Supreme Court.
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Citizens come to the help of battered
widow Chandigarh,
November 9 “We have no official communication
from higher authorities on this matter so far,” a senior officer at
the Chandigarh Air Force Station said. “A few officers, however,
visited the ladies on humanitarian grounds,” he added. Ms Beant
Kaur, widow of Air Vice Marshal Harjinder Singh, had alleged that she
and her younger sister Ms Satwant Kaur were tortured by their nephew,
a retired colonel over the past several years and all their property,
money and belonging were snatched from them. An NGO, Bal Sadan
Association, meanwhile, has offered them refuge. “Both the ladies
are in a state of shock and are feeling very insecure. We are offering
them support till something conclusive for them can be done,” Ms
Kalpana Ghai of the NGO said. She said the NGO, along with residents
of Sector 3, where Ms Beant Kaur and her sister were staying prior to
their “escape” would be submitting an appeal to the Governor. The
matter would also be taken up with the Air Force and the Defence
Ministry. Ms Beant also wants to petition the President as her
husband had worked for the president, who, by virtue of his office, is
also the supreme commander of the armed forces. The ladies were were
medically examined again at the Sector 16 General Hospital to remove
any doubts about the nature of their injuries. A Deputy Superintendent
of police was deputed to record the statements of the ladies as well
as their relatives and neighbours. They are at present staying in the
house of one of their relatives in Sector 11. |
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53-year-old woman crushed to death
Chandigarh, November 9 Kuldeep Singh, a resident of Phase XI, Mohali, and his wife Manjit Kaur were on way to the Command Hospital in Chandi Mandir when the accident occurred. According to the police a truck hit the motorcycle from behind and the couple fell on the road. Manjit Kaur fell on the right side and was crushed to death under the rear wheel of the truck. She was wearing a helmet but the wheels of the truck went over her chest. Her husband, however, escaped unhurt as he fell towards the left side. The driver of the truck, who was identified as Rajinder Singh, sped away after the accident but the police arrested him from the barrier near NAC Mani Majra, the police said. The body of the woman was taken to the General Hospital in Sector 16. Upkar Singh, a neighbour of Mr Kuldeep Singh, who was present in the hospital, said Mr Kuldeep Singh was a retired Air Force officer. The couple has three sons and two of them are settled abroad. While the third one is settled in Delhi. The couple was staying alone in Mohali and were soon to go to Australia to visit their son.
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High-tension wires no tension for residents
Panchkula, November 9 In a bid to grab land, unauthorised construction by residents (in violation of Housing Board building bylaws) has led to electricity poles being enclosed within houses and live cables (often without insulation) running through buildings in Sectors 11, 15 and 26, posing a serious threat to the safety of residents. In several houses, the cables run barely a foot from the buildings. This is in violation of the Indian Electricity Rules and the Indian Electricity Act, 1910. Officials say that a distance of at least 11 feet from the highest point of a building is mandatory in the case of an 11 KV transmission line and a horizontal distance of 4 feet has to be maintained. A visit to various Housing Board colonies in Sectors 6, 8, 10, 11, 15, 18, 19 and 26 and in Railley, Railla, Haripur and Maheshpur villages revealed a criss-cross of live electricity cables dangling amidst the houses. Residents, however, were oblivious to the safety threat caused by their encroaching on government land. Rather, they blamed the Uttar Haryana Bijli Vitran Nigam (UHBVN) officials for not conceding to their long-pending demand for shifting the poles. Officials on the other hand said that all necessary precautions had been taken while erecting the electricity poles, and these could not be shifted. Mr Umesh Shukla, a resident of Sector 15 Housing Board Colony, brushed aside queries about the threat from the cables. “We are used to it now, and have even taught our children to stay away from the cables.” Another resident in Sector 11 Housing Board Colony, Ms Meena Rani, said that she had extended the boundary wall till the electricity and telephone poles to get some extra parking space. There have been stray cases of electrocution because of these cables in Sector 15, Railley and Railla. Other than the electricity poles, these unauthorised constructions have also led to the sewers and road gullies being brought within houses and a reduction in the width of the roads. Though the municipal council had recently started clearing these encroachments, it buckled under political pressure and the drive was stalled. The council President, Ms Seema Chaudhary, said they would soon relaunch the drive
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Arrest warrants issued for Tehelka witness
Chandigarh, November 9 The Army, however, restrained from executing the warrants as the witness expressed his willingness today to appear before the court, prosecution counsel Arvind Moudgil said. He was escorted here from Delhi by the prosecutor, Major Sanjay Sitanshu today and is now expected to depose before the court tomorrow. Mathews is considered a significant witness as he was the one who physically executed the sting operation by news portal tehelka.com, catching politicians, bureaucrats and Army officers on tape demanding and accepting bribes in arms deals. Mathews was to appear before the court yesterday, but failed to do so despite summons, Mr Moudgil said. After fresh summons were issued by the court's convening authority, the Army took to legal recourse and moved the court of the Additional Chief Metropolitan Magistrate in Delhi, who issued an arrest warrant. The court had been adjourned on October 16 after the witness had sought time to refresh his memory before being questioned. He had also sought permission to view the tapes, and the copies of the tapes were handed over to him following court directions. The court had fixed October 25 as the next date of hearing, but the witness did not appear. The court assembled several times thereafter, but had to be adjourned without conducting any meaningful business due to non-availability of the witness. Though the witness, who is presently working as Associate Editor of India TV, had been intimated several times by the prosecution about the hearing dates, he cited his inability to appear before the court due to urgent professional commitments. Samuel Mathews, meanwhile, has also written to Chief of the Army Staff on this matter.
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Tribune’s new building inaugurated
Chandigarh, November 9 The Editor-in-Chief of the Tribune group of newspapers, Mr. H. K. Dua, today inaugurated the building in the presence of General Manager,
Mr. R. N. Gupta, Deputy General Manger, Mr O. P. Arora and Tribune Employees Union
president, Mr Jagtar Singh Sidhu, among hundreds of other employees. The building will house
new printing machines that will enhance the group of newspapers' capacity to increase the printing of
colour pages. The addition of the new machines will also provide the newspaper a capacity to meet different deadlines. The need of the building
was felt after a rapid increase in the number of the staff. A shortage of space was felt in the old building which was constructed in the
late sixties. Business, marketing, finance and circulation departments will be shifted to the new building.
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Gardener as operating theatre assistant
Mohali/Kharar, November 9 Matters are no better at the Kharar Civil Hospital where no post of OTA exists, as in the case of the Mohali hospital, and recently a qualified person has started providing services free of cost. Both hospitals are 50-bed institutions and authorities say that according to norms posts of OTA have not been sanctioned for 50-bed hospitals. Strangely, there are several doctors and other staff members on deputation at the two hospitals, much in excess of the sanctioned strength, but no place for OTAs. There are 16 doctors working at the Mohali Civil Hospital, some of them on deputation, though the sanctioned strength of doctors at the hospital is only nine. Similarly, the strength of nursing sisters and laboratory technicians is much more than the number sanctioned for a 50-bed hospital. Similarly, at the Kharar hospital also the staff is in excess of the sanctioned strength. Sources say that the number of surgeries to be performed by each specialist at the hospitals has been fixed by the PHSC. If a doctor fails to perform the "benchmark" fixed for him, an explanation is called by the higher authorities. As even major surgeries are to be performed at 50-bed hospitals, doctors are left with no choice except to provide the required training to Class III and IV employees to make the system work. It was in this context that a gardener, Balbir Singh, was given the required training at the Mohali Civil Hospital after which he started working as an OTA. Similarly, in the case of the Kharar Civil Hospital, Class III and IV employees had been trained to make the system functional though for the past two months, a local resident, who had done the required training for an OTA, was working for the hospital free of cost. But are the authorities concerned unaware of the fact that though the surgeries are being performed by providing the required training to other hospital employees, the quality of work definitely suffered as the post of an OTA demanded some expertise. An OTA has to take care of the sterlisation of the operating theatre, instruments, autoclaving and fumigation of the OT. Dr Rana Harinder, Civil Surgeon, Ropar, while admitting that the quality of work got adversely affected, said the system had been functioning without OTAs for decades because such posts had never been sanctioned for 60-bed hospitals. She said employees who were provided the required training worked under the supervision of staff nurses. However, the demand for the sanctioning posts of OTA had been made by her office as requirements were changing with the times, added the Civil Surgeon.
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Farmers hit hard by hike in oil, LPG prices
Chandigarh, November 9 Agitated farmers, who were already finding it hard to come to terms with the fall in the prices of cotton, have been hit hard with the increase in the prices of petroleum products. Farmer Gurbaksh Singh said with the price of diesel going up to Rs 25.71 per litre, he would now have to spend an additional sum of Rs 420 on getting a drum of diesel. The cost of the diesel drum has gone up from Rs 4,722 to Rs 5,142. Another farmer lamented that the price of diesel has gone up as many as 18 times during the past five years and the price of diesel was Rs 10.20 per litre on April 1, 1999 and a drum would cost Rs 2,244 only. Mr Balbir Singh Rajewal, national general secretary of Bharti Kisan Union ( BKU) said this hike would definitely add to the woes of the farmers and the rising cost of inputs would have an impact on their already depleted incomes. Giving figures he said 30 lakh kilolitres of diesel is consumed in the state every year, of which 50 per cent is consumed by farmers. An increase of Rs 2.10 per litre in the price of diesel would mean an increase of Rs 157.5 crore on the input cost of the wheat crop. The increase in the price of petrol and LPG will mean an additional burden of Rs 18 and Rs 72 crore, respectively, on the farming community. “This only goes to show how the farmers were being squeezed by the government,” he said. The state president of Kul Hind Kirti Kisan Sabha, Mr Prem Singh Bhangu, has also criticised the Union government for playing a cruel joke on the farmers by announcing a small hike of Rs 10 per quintal in the MSP of paddy and a massive hike in the price of diesel the very next day. This would only deepen the financial crisis of the farmers as input costs of operating tractors, pump sets, thresher machines etc will go up substantially, he said. Various other farmers organisations, including Punjab Kisan Sabha and the BKU (Ekta) have also criticised the government for affecting this hike as the farmers are already reeling under debt of crores of rupees. They have held the government responsible for the suicides of farmers due to increased indebtedness. Diesel being the main agricultural component, the farmers will have no choice but to take more loans to meet this additional burden. The agitated farmers who are already seeking an increase in the price of cotton, clearance of sugarcane arrears, adequate availability of fertilisers, will find the going even tougher now. The minimum support price (MSP) for various crops should be enhanced to ensure that the farmers were able to at least the cost on inputs. The farmers’ organisations have also urged Prime Minister Manmohan Singh to roll back the hike in prices and affect a suitable hike in the MSP of paddy.
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Six file papers for MC byelection
Chandigarh, November 9 The Returning Officer, Mr Gurdip Singh, said six nominations came on the last day of filing papers. While Dr O.P. Verma is the candidate of the Chandigarh Vikas Manch, Mr Rajesh Kumar Gupta, a Congress dissident, filed nomination as an Independent candidate. Mr H.S. Lucky is the Congress candidate. Mr Gupta, accompanied by residents of Sector 20, said the residents were not interested in voting for an “outsider” as their councillor. “I have always lived in this sector which gives me an edge over all others,” he added. Mr Girdhari Lal Jindal, BJP candidate, also filed his papers today along with Mr Kehar Singh Koundel of the same party. Mr Koundel filed his nomination as Mr Jindal’s covering candidate. Senior BJP leaders addressed a rally in which they said the Congress had been misguiding people with false promises and had failed to live up to the expectations of the public. They later took out a procession from the party office in Sector 33 to Sector 20. BJP and Congress candidates came in a colourful procession to the office of the Returning Officer to file their nominations. Contesting as an Independent, Mr Harpal Singh, is being backed by the Riar’s faction of the Akali Dal. The nomination papers will be scrutinised tomorrow and the last date for withdrawal is November 13.
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Raghu Rai’s frames narrate tragic tales of Bhopal
Chandigarh, November 9 Commissioned by the Greenpeace India to revisit Bhopal and search for the missing links in the chain of disaster, Raghu Rai has structured a show that traumatises the mind with its ugliness as well as truth. There are frames that tell tragic tales of death and devastation – like the iconic picture of Raghu Rai in which he has captured the burial of a child. Many other frames reflect the humans’ yearnings for lives cut short by a chemical disaster. Each picture stands out with a separate history of its own; black and white enhances the impact of the tragedy which has claimed over 20,000 lives, officially speaking. Present on the occasion of inauguration at Government Museum and Art Gallery, Sector 10, Ramapati Kumar, toxic campaigner for Greenpeace India, voiced the painful reality of Bhopal which continues to suffer. “Children play in the compound of Union Carbide where toxic await clearance. People have no access to safe drinking water.” Also present was Shahid Noor, a Bhopal gas tragedy survivor, who narrated his tales of woes, drawing people’s attention to his kidneys which seems to be failing him. As Noor spoke of his trials, Raghu Rai’s frames told their own cold story from the backdrop. The picture of a man carrying his dead wife past the Union Carbide factory is evocative and depressing as is that of the aborted foetus which Dr Satpathy of Hamidia Hospital in Bhopal has preserved to establish the cause of death. Till now Dr Satpathy has performed 20,000 autopsies. Without his certificate the victims of the tragedy cannot claim compensation. Skeletons stare of you from some frames while the human tragedy surfaces in others like in the one where a body identified as that of Leela is being cremated. Had she not been identified, she would have joined many others in mass cremation prayers. There are also portraits of people who were in charge of affairs on that fateful night. Swaraj Puri, then SP, who chose to stay back instead of running away when the tragedy struck Bhopal is still bearing the brunt of his decision. Structured by Rai on the initiative of the Greenpeace, the exhibition has travelled all over the world before landing in Chandigarh. It can be viewed till November 18 between 10 am and 5 pm.
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Four-day vacation from Friday
Chandigarh, November 9 Thanks to Divali on falling Friday and Id-ul-Fitr on Monday, it will be a four-day vacation. Almost every government office will remain closed. November 13 and 14 are closed days being Saturday and Sunday, respectively. Besides Government offices, the Punjab and Haryana High Court has also announced its vacation. The court starts its six-day vacation from tomorrow and the work shall resume on November 16. Meanwhile, sources in the banking sector said managers were refusing casual leave applications of employees for Saturday to keep their branches in operation. In government offices the festive atmosphere is already prevailing as several employees have opted to take leave on Wednesday and Thursday.
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Sandhu nominated Colonel Commandant
Chandigarh, November 9 Besides his regular duties, he will also be responsible for overseeing the functioning of the AOC as well as taking stock of regimental matters and issues pertaining to the welfare of AOC personnel and their families. General Sandhu was commissioned in December, 1967, and has held several important appointments, including command of an ordnance depot, command of the Central Ordnance Depot, Delhi, and a tenure in Nigeria.
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Problems galore in Sector 40-C
Chandigarh, November 9 The list of woes keeps adding up. These houses were allotted in 1980 and since then the standard of living has changed drastically. The main problem is with electrical wiring. All wiring between houses has joints and can be risky, but complaints have not yielded anything. Another problem is a forest area near the houses. Mr S.K. Khosla, convener, Residents Coordination Committee, says the forest should be fenced properly. Another point raised by the residents is the construction of gullies which help drain out storm water. Besides this, the Municipal Corporation has failed to maintain open spaces. The residents have collected funds to maintain parks. The location of dustbins is also not proper and there is garbage strewn all around them.
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Lineman electrocuted
Chandigarh, November 9
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Sub-Inspector, son beaten up
Chandigarh, November 9 Sub-Inspector Atma Prakash, residing in Sector 38 (West), was discharged from the Sector 16 General Hospital, while his son Sumit is still in the hospital. According to the police, the father-son duo today purchased a mobile phone set from Anmol Watch Company, Sector 22. After sometime they came to the shop to return it, saying it was not charging. The shopkeeper refused to take it back. The police officer and persons inside the shop had heated arguments. During the arguments, the staff of the shop downed the shutters and allegedly beat up the father-son duo. According to the police, Sumit sustained injuries on the head. The police has registered a case under Sections 147, 149, 323 and 342 of the IPC. The police arrested Ramesh Narang, Anmol, Parul and Harsimrath in this connection and later bailed them out. The dispute arose after the father-son duo asked the shopkeeper to change the set. The shopkeeper refused to entertain them saying the set could be repaired in the service centre of the company. The buyers refused to go to the centre saying they would only deal with the dealer from whom they had purchased the set.
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Theft at cop’s house
Chandigarh, November 9 The police said that thieves struck at house No. 2450, Sector 20-C, by breaking locks when the wife of Mr Kuldeep Singh, Head Constable, had gone to the market around 11 am. When she returned after two hours she found the locks of her house broken. The matter was reported to the police. A case under Sections 380 and 454 of the IPC has been registered at Sector 19 police station. A case of theft has been registered on the complaint of Mr Jatinder Bajaj of Sector 23. Mr Bajaj in his complaint said that 29 mobile phones were stolen from his shop on the intervening night of October 22-23. The police did not register a case initially saying it would be done after the receipt of the Central Forensic Science Laboratories, (CFSL) report. However, a case was registered following repeated requests of the complainant. But the investigation would only start when the CFSL report was available, it said. Dowry cases
Ms Honey Goel of the Modern Housing Complex, Manimajra, has filed a complaint against her husband Ravinder Aggarwal and her in-laws, all residents of Basant Vihar, lovely Associates, Dehra Dun (Uttaranchal) that they were harassing her to bring dowry. She was married to Ravinder in April 2000. A case under Sections 406, 498-A and 120-B of the IPC has been registered. In another incident, Ms Rupinder Kaur of Sector 40-A has complained to the police that her husband Sandeep Aggarwal and in-laws, all residents of Defence Colony, Patiala, are harassing her to bring dowry. She was married to Sandeep on July 15, 2004. A case has been registered.
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Warrants against Chandigarh resident
Mohali, November 9 The arrest warrants were issued by a Kharar court today against Dhiraj Jaitely. The theft had taken place in a showroom dealing in computer data conversion and the owner, Mr Anurag Biala, had claimed that he had suffered a loss of about 9 lakh. The thieves had taken away processors, hard discs, rams, motherboard from CPUs, leaving only the cabinets. He said that apart from the theft of the hardware, thieves had also decamped with the data stored in the software. It is learnt that Dhiraj Jaitely was a partner of, Mr Biala, in the business but had later parted ways after differences appeared between them.
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ASI held on bribe charge
Chandigarh, November 9 ASI Jaswant Singh was arrested red-handed, while Gurmel Singh was being interrogated by the CBI. The CBI is verifying the involvement of Gurmel Singh in demanding the bribe for allegedly letting the complainant off the hook in a liquor smuggling case. Sources said Gurmel Singh allegedly demanded the bribe from Zora Singh. The police seized liquor from Zora Singh on November 1. According to the sources, Gurmel Singh, who was away from the police post, today reportedly rang up Jaswant Singh, asking him to collect Rs 1,000 from Zora Singh. When Zora Singh gave the money to Jaswant Singh, he was arrested by the CBI.
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4 held for snatching mobile phone
Panchkula, November 9 The police says that Ankush Sharma was gifted a mobile set by his father in October , worth Rs 25,000. His friend, Jaspreet, saw the hand-set, and he made a plan to steal the phone. On October 14, he called Ankush to a secluded spot in Sector 14 and sent the other three accused there. The trio snatched his phone, beat
him up, and left the place. It was on Sunday that Ankush spotted one of his assailants, Vicky, at a school fete. He informed the police and Vicky was nabbed. He then led the police to the others. All four accused were presented before a local court, and sent to judicial remand.
Two Injured
Chander Singh and Satpal were injured when their Indica car was hit on the rear by a speeding truck near Ramgarh today. They were on the back seat of the car. The two persons on front seats escaped unhurt.
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Girl commits suicide
Panchkula, November 9 The girl used to work as a part-time maid in Sector 17 here along with her mother, Santosh Devi. Today, the girl refused to go to work and her mother went alone. Her father, Jagdish, a sweeper in Chandi Mandir, was also away to work, while her two children were away to school. When the victim’s mother came back from work around 11.30 am, she found her daughter hanging. The body was sent for postmortem.
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Biz clip
Chandigarh,
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